One Month Vacation Countdown - and cooking stew in a pressure cooker

Yes... one month ... one month!   The countdown has begun!  As I look out our windows at the dreary snow, and feel the subzero temps blasting us, we know how much we will appreciate hopping in the rig and heading south and west to where it's WARM!  I think we just want to open up our lawn chairs in the desert, sit in the sunshine, turn our faces to the sun and relax!!!

Yesterday we drove to frozen Green Bay for some errands, and bought some New Balance hiking/walking shoes for our trip.  We plan to get in a lot of walking and the dogs will be enjoying it too.  We found some nice ones on sale from $70 down to $21 clearance!   They didn't have them in woman's size on the clearance, just men's.  But Steve found a pair for himself, and I thought what the heck, let me see if there was a men's pair that were small enough for me?  Sure Nuff!  So now we are sporting matching shoes!

We skipped going to the big Green Bay RV and Camper show this weekend.  It was held indoors and they charge $8 a person to enter the building. We know of the two local dealers, only one carries motorhomes, and he only had 2 on the lot all winter. Our friends Sharon and Fred went, and said there wasn't much to see anyhow.  Just lots of booths of private parks that we never go to anyhow. So we saved our money.



Last week I posted about using my pressure cookers in the house and in the motorhome.  I have a larger one in the house and a smaller one in the motorhome.   Note-- this is not the big canning pressure cookers with the dials and levers.   This is a smaller stove top version for cooking foods faster and seals in the flavor better than conventional cooking in a kettle.

The one in the pics below came from a tenant of mine. He was an older man who was moving to Nevada, and I helped him sell off a lot of his antique furniture and things before he left.  One of the items he gave to me was this pressure cooker, complete with the old original recipe book that was printed by the company, Presto.  I know new ones in the stores run upwards of $70-80 ... so keep an eye out at thrift shops or rummages for a more reasonable priced one.  You can get replacement gaskets and rocker weights in many hardware stores or online.   The smaller one in the rig came from a rummage sale for $2.

We use them a lot, and it makes cooking easier and faster, in my opinion.  So while I was making beef stew this week, I snapped a few pics for my blog.   I timed myself ... it took 28 minutes from beginning to end!

First, I browned up some tenderloin chunks of meat 

in the bottom of the pan with a bit of water and spices. 

While that was browning, Steveio peeled the taters and carrots. 

I gathered garlic, mushrooms (I was outta fresh so used canned) 

and 2 packets of gravy mix. You could use jars of gravy too.

That purple thing is a plastic onion holder that I just LOVE.. 

keeps half cut up onions in the fridge without them stinking up the other foods. 

Once the meat was browned, I tossed in the carrots, 

onions and shrooms and about 2 cups of water

Stick on the lid, turn the burner on Med-Hi and set the rocker weight in place

12 minutes of psssh psssh psssh rocking on top.

While that was cooking, I chunked up the potatoes 

and mixed up the gravy mixes with 2 cups of cold water

(see that small wire whisk?  World's Best Invention as far as I am concerned) 

gathered the spices and a dollop of steak sauce too.....

When the 12 minutes were up, I set the pressure cooker under cold running water in the sink....

the pressure lets out and then I can open the lid

I dumped in the gravy, the spices and the potatoes, and the dollop of steak sauce.  

Stir it up and I set it to cooking for 8 more minutes. 

(if you add the potatoes at the beginning, they get too soft and mushy)

Take it off again, cool under the water in the sink... and open up for 

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

The house smells soooooooooooooo good after making stew!   And sometimes I add to that a loaf of home baked bread from the bread machine.  Now that is a double whammy on making the house smell extra special!


Last night I made up rice in the pressure cooker, (7 minutes to fluffy perfection) and took pics but they are still in the camera... will save them for a future blog post when I have nothing else to write about.

Out with the Tree - Seafood Lovers Pizza and Motorhome Exercise Day!

On Sunday, we ran up to dad's cabin and had a nice visit with him.  He was happy to see us and we brought him some holiday treats.  The dogs came along so they could give his cat Issiah a tough time.   The cat loves to tease them and makes sure they know he is the King of the House.

 It was a pleasant drive up to his place

 and we got back in time for the kickoff on the big Packer / Giants game (which they won!)

Our fresh cut Blue Spruce has not fared too well.  I watered it daily, but it just kept losing needles.  Normally I like to keep our tree up till after New Years.  This time we figured we better take it out before it becomes a fire hazard.....  we took it apart during the Packer game (during the commercials)     just LOOK at all the needles that fell just from taking off the ornaments and lights!

It took four times dumping the vac cleaner canister to get up all of these danged needles!

Once that was done, it was time for supper... .a while back I saw this great idea on the noon tv segment Mr. Food for a Seafood Lovers Pizza.   Here is the recipe from their website:

Homemade Seafood Lover's Pizza 

Homemade Seafood Lover's Pizza delivers a creamy cheese spread topped with fresh seafood that bakes up in no time to impress your guests as an appetizer or your family as a light dinner.

Ingredients
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons prepared pesto sauce
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 (12-inch round) prepared pizza shell
6 ounces flaked crabmeat
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (see Notes)
1/4 pound medium-sized cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450°F.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, pesto sauce, Parmesan cheese, and pepper; beat with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth.

Spread mixture evenly over pizza shell. Sprinkle with crabmeat and cheese then top with shrimp.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until crust is crisp and brown, and cheese is melted.

Makes 6 to 8 slices.






This was a good night to make it, so I snapped pics step by step.

I bought these thick crust Mama Mary's unbaked pizza crusts.  They come two to a pack, and if you only use one, they thoughtfully include an extra bag to store the other one till you need it for the next time.

Some bags of shredded parmesan, montery jack and mozzarella, a can of real crab meat, some cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, italian spices and 12 jumbo shrimp.

I didn't have any pesto sauce on hand, so I made my own from garlic and spices and mushed it up with the cream cheese and sour cream.  (next time I will use less and spread more thinly)

I drained the can of flaked crab meat in a strainer and carefully scattered it around on the pizza

Now I added a blend of all three shredded cheeses, the 12 shrimp and sprinkled with Italian Seasoning

Baked it up till golden.. yummmmmmmmmmm  what a mouthwatering treat! 

(next time we will use low fat cheeses and less sauce)

Soooo for Monday, dear Steveio was off work.  It's a *Furlough Day* for all the state workers.  Ya know, those days they make all of the state employees take off, with NO pay, to think that might just balance the State's horrendous budget.  Ya...  right.  He has to take 8 of them again this year.  Sigh.   And finds twice as much work when he gets back.  Did ya know some of the 24 hour jobs like prison guards and power plant guys all rake in double time and overtime pay for working to cover for the guys who had to take off.  Now THAT makes sense?  It really doesn't help the state's budget and really only hurts the worker's budgets!   Okay, off the soapbox.



But since the sun was shining and the roads were dry,  we decided to do our monthly exercise of our motorhome.  Yes, each month it should be started, and run for more than 20 miles to get the transmission up to a good temp.  Steve puts an additive in our diesel fuel to prevent gelling in the cold temps.   It fired right up in the driveway in 18 degree temps.  That Cat engine purred like a kitten!

We fired up the generator too, and plugged in two electric heaters to take out the chill, plus the dash heat and the LP furnace.  Then we added the dogs, and the baby seat.  Yes, we had Chelsea the granddaughter today and she needs to get a ride in our motorhome too.   Steveio is in his glory when he is behind the wheel.

We drove about 15 miles up the side of the Bay to North Bayshore County Park.  They plow out the parking lot all winter to allow the ice fishermen to come and go from the parking area out onto the frozen waters of Green Bay.   We saw two of them fishing right on the channel at the boat landing.

The sun was shining and we were comfy cozy in our rig.  We discussed our upcoming trip and made some lists of things to take or do or work on before we leave in February.   We kept the genny running while I cooked up some lunch in the microwave.  Then we shut that down and just used the battery power and inverter to watch some tv and settle in the baby for a nap.

 What a gorgeous parking spot in the sunshine on a frosty cold winter day!

(see me n Chelsea waving out the windshield as Steve took the pic?)

We all dozed off for a nap in the afternoon sunshine, and it was such a nice way to spend the afternoon.  About 2:30 we headed on home, with no mishaps.  The rig ran great and all was well. 

It sure was hard on us to back it into the yard.... we wanted to keep on going!~!